Winds Of Change
by Corentin
Summary: Temari is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter, and Shikamaru is her fallen-from-grace agent.  With songs, dancing, celebrities, and lots of booze, what could go wrong?  Rated T because I'm The Paranoid King.
1. Chapter 1

**I am evil. I should be writing on Man And Wife, or Fighting The Shadows of Wind, but I'm not. I didn't even put this in the projects section on my profile (I redid my profile, check it out!)...But last night the Muse came to me and said, "I will mutilate your stories forever if you do not write this..." Actually, I just really, really wanted to write it... so now I've committed to a third Chapter story. At the SAME TIME! Sheesh.**

**Well, at least I'm having fun.  


* * *

**

**Winds Of Change:Chapter I**

Temari sat in her dressing room, humming quietly to herself. She was straightening her hair, when a loud pounding came at the door rattling the mirror.

"Woman, you've got precisely five minutes! Get ready to go on stage!" Temari sighed, and yelled at the door.

"Screw off, you chain-smoking jerk!"

**Name: Sabaku no Temari**

** Age:18 and 7 months.**

** Occupation: Singer/songwriter/musical technician. Currently rising in popularity in Konohagakure and Sunagakure.**

Temari sighed again, adjusting the pictures stuck to the edges of her mirror. Gaara, Kankuro, Baki...she hadn't seen them in...six months, ever since she was bought by Shinobi Records and received authorization for a tour. It was a good thing, of course, it gave Temari's music the boost it needed. Her music was fairly simple. She sang, and synthesized the rest, using various devices. It was certainly odd, however, odd was in at the moment, so she was making money. Lots of money. She had a great contract, one which expired in two months, when she would probably be able to go on tour for herself. She would have earned enough money to cover base costs, also, she had enough popularity that people would pay good money to see her preform. The door shook again.

"T-minus three minutes, woman!" That was only downside to her record deal. A freaking agent. And one who was cranky, annoying, lazy, and a chain-smoker at that. Also, he was only two and a half years older than her. What the heck? That was when the door was kicked in, and an irate young man, his black hair in a ponytail, stepped in.

"Did I or did I not tell you if this happened again I would dock your cookies?"

"Really mature, Nara. I don't need cookies."

"Nonsense. Everybody needs cookies."

**Name:Nara Shikamaru**

** Age:21**

** Occupation:Formerly a famous guitarist, was involved in a scandal which ended with him in jail, now agent to Sabaku no Temari.**

"Ha ha ha. I'm laughing, Nara, look? I'll give you the attention you want, now leave me alone."

"Absolutely not. What if some of your equipment isn't there when you go to the backstage two seconds before you have to go on? Then you're-"

"Three minutes late, Nara, what a big deal."

"I'll have you know-"

"Alright, fine, I'm going, I'm going! Happy now? I'm crying now, Nara, notice the wet stuff?"

"_Incredibly annoying,_" thought Temari.

* * *

Temari stood backstage, a large Mountain Dew in one hand, the remote control which synchronized all her various devices in the other. She could hear the crowd chanting now.

"Sab-a-ku! Sab-a-ku! Te-mar-i! Te-mar-i!" She grinned. She liked this feeling of power, the knowledge that she could make or break the evenings of about a thousand people if she chose to. But, as always, she chose not to, nodding at the stage manager, who blacked the auditorium. Temari stepped on stage, carefully, slipping between pieces of equipment and over cords, a memorized pattern from her many times on stage. She insisted on always having the same configuration, and knowing it well enough she could walk through without a light. Which is essentially what she was now doing. As her fingers found the microphone stand, she remembered the chaos last year when she'd accidentally knocked her microphone onto a guy's head. Now **that** had been a nightmare. Temari breathed in and out, removing the last-minute butterflies from her system. Then she set down her bottle of Mountain Dew, and pressed play on the remote. The song she'd chosen for her opener was a cover, one that was intended for a full band and a male singer. But what the heck. The fans liked it. As the music began to play, she grabbed the mike and began to shout, the spotlight flashing on and off every time she said a letter or word.

"S! A! F! E! T! Y! SAFETY! DANCE!" The whole stage lit up, and Temari let the roar of the audience's approval wash over her, standing with her leg spread, arms held out at the same angles, as if she was receiving energy from them. Temari spun around quickly, three times, and then grabbed the mike out of its stand and began to sing.

"We can dance if we want to,

we can leave your friends behind,

'cause your friends don't dance

and if they don't dance why,

they're no friends of mine.

We can go if we want to,

a place that they will never find,

and we can act like we come from out of this world,

and you won't fall behind!

And we can dance!" She pointed at the audience, who roared the response.

"AND SING!" Temari kept singing, and when the song finally ended she was, as always, breathless. She waited for a few moments for the applause to die down, and then shouted into her microphone.

"HELLO, KONOHA!" The crowd roared, clapping and cheering as she began her next song.

* * *

Temari's concert lasted for two hours, and she sang many, many songs. Covers, original songs, new songs, all the while keeping the audience involved. As always, she brought ten people up onstage to dance to her song(which had stayed at #1 in Suna for three weeks), _Chipotle Wacko_. Then she'd brought up five others to try out the various instruments which she used, jamming with them for five minutes, as song which she vowed never to record, keeping the tune and words different every time she sang it, _Morse Code_. She doubted that anybody had taken the time to notice that the words, when interpreted as dots and dashes spelled out the same words every time. But even though she'd had fun doing this concert, much more fun than the last few times she'd sung, Temari was tired, so she decided to finish up with a new song, _Slip Slide, Zip Ride._ Temari took her microphone, quieted the audience down with her hands, and began to speak.

"All right, people, I'm getting kind of tired, but we have reached the end of the show. I'm going to sing one last song, no encores. I need my sleep. But this song is new, so you people get to be the first to hear it. I haven't sung this song for anyone. Not even the record company, and I don't intend to. This one's just for you. Here we go." Temari punched in the song's number, took one last gulp of Mountain Dew, and started the song. It started off with a single harmonica tune, which Temari picked up, and then began to sing.

"On top of Old Smokey,

all covered with snow,

We put down our sled,

not ready to go.

I looked down the mountain,

so steep and so high,

and then our dumb friends

pushed and said goodbye.

Our sled picked up speed,

sliding 'cross the snow,

and that's when we knew..." Temari slowed down.

"I was ready to...GO!" The beat started, followed by the melody synthesizers.

"Landscape, rushing past,

snowfall, flying fast,

Cheeks burn,

quick turn,

Slipping, sliding,

Zipping, riding,

riding, gliding,

flipping, falling,

ripping, bawling,

All in good fun,

all in a day at the sled hillll!" Temari drew out the last note of the chorus.

"Tree coming, look out there,

eating something, it's my hair,

bodies pressing in,

fight to win.

Zip past,

sign the cast,

zoom through,

buy a shoe,

Falling faster,

head going high'r,

screaming 'Bastard!',

trail on fire.

Slipping, sliding,

Zipping, riding,

riding, gliding,

flipping, falling,

ripping, bawling,

All in good fun,

all in a day at the sled hillll!

'cause we wana have some fun,

so we slide and run,

up and down, up is down,

craziest kids in town.

Roy's gone,

Mike's not long,

Chip's fainted,

wind whips, hair liberated,

Rocks now, coming fast,

feet down, gonna crash,

Yippee, happy day,

now we saaaayyyyy!" Temari extended the note as she began the last chorus.

"Slipping, sliding,

Zipping, riding,

riding, gliding,

flipping, falling,

ripping, bawling,

All in good fun,

all in a day at the sled hillll!" Temari dropped her arms, and stood, in the dead silence, as the audience absorbed the song, as well as the fact that it was done. Then the cheers started. They were deafening, and Temari spun in circles, taking them all in, and she had to shout, even through the microphone, to say goodnight, and she was offstage, hugging the first guy she saw, screaming in happiness. She'd been insecure about unveiling that song, but they liked it! The man in her arms, who happened to be Shikamaru, looked at her, dazed, and then smiled at her. He hugged her back, yelling congratulations in her ear, and then she was leaving for her dressing room, calling it a night, and he called for some champagne to be sent to her, and the cheers still hadn't even begun to slow. And when he went outside to get some peace, the calls started flooding in, and Slip Slide, Zip Ride was hitting the top of the charts and they didn't even know its name yet. Finally he stopped taking the calls, just scrolling through them. But then his phone rang the ring-tone designated for a known number, and he picked up. It was Neji.

"Hey, man! I was just watching concert on TV, where did you find that girl? She's phenomenal. Did she write that herself? No help?" Shikamaru laughed.

"Yes, Neji, she did. We're all a little frazzled here right now, thrill of victory and all that, so I'll give you call back soon, eh?"

"Sure thing, man. I remember what that was like, back when our band was still running. Remember it? Talk to ya later," and he hung up, leaving Shikamaru's reply to hang in thin air.

"How could I forget it?"

* * *

**DUN-DUN-DUN! SUSPENSE! Keep reading, and review, please.**

**Corentin  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for reading. Note to all of you who took the time to read the preview, I changed my mind about this chapter.**

_"And the big news today is in the music world, where a new track by an almost unknown artist is slipping, sliding to the top of the charts. Our music man, Peter Donnavitch was at last nights concert, Peter, what can you tell us about this?"_

_ 'Well, Tom, it's a phenomenom. Sabaku no Temari is a Sunese artist, not very well known here, or in her hometown for that matter. That's why, when she played this song last night, there were only about a thousand people there." _A clip of Temari's voice played.

_"Landscape, rushing past, _

_ snowfall, flying fast, _

_ Cheeks burn, _

_ quick turn, _

_ Slipping, sliding,_

_ Zipping, riding, _

_ riding, gliding,_

_ flipping, falling, _

_ ripping, bawling, _

_ All in good fun,_

_ all in a day at the sled hillll!"_

_ "This is what all the fuss is about, Tom. She unveiled this song last night, apparently for the first time to anyone, including her crew and record company, and the crowd loved it. The riot police were actually called in at first, because people in the vicinity heard all the noise. The cheering and clapping lasted for at the least fifteen minutes after Sabaku left the stage, and they were standing there talking about the song until they were thrown out by the janitors. The song quickly rose to first place on the charts, which is unheard of, especially since it doesn't even have a name yet."_

_ "Now, Peter, in listening to that track, there's more than one person playing there, correct?"_

_ "No, it's actually all Sabaku's work. She records all the sound she needs beforehand,om synthesizers, and synchronizes it, so she can preform entire orchestral pieces by herself."_

_ "Amazing. What else do we know about Sabaku, Peter?"_

_ "Well, Tom, she was a promising artist in Suna, was snapped up by the Shinobi records company, and sent on tour. She's announced her intentions to quit after the contract finishes, and begin to work in her own right, paying for recordings to be made, keeping the full rights to all her subsequent albums. And there's actually an interesting story there, Tom, because Shinobi Records is threatening to fire its own agent, who apparently advised Sabaku to do this. And guess who the agent is?"_

_ "Who is it, Peter?"_

_ "Nara Shikamaru, the disgraced lead guitarist from the wildly popular former band Shadow Strings. We all remember the horrible incident which led to Shadow Strings' break-up, and Nara's imprisonment and apparently he's working as an agent now that there's no way he can return to music. This is likely going to cause some trouble for Sabaku in the future, with an agent who's still the target of suspicious talk, but it will also be an advantage to her, because Nara knows how to deal with almost literally any situation. Still, the tabloids will be having a field day with this, sa-"_ Temari shut the TV off. She'd been watching the news, seeing report after report about her concert, crappy recording after crappy recording of her song, and all of the reports had come back to her agent! She knew the stories they told about him, obviously, she'd been 16 years old and riveted to the tabloids at that time. But seriously, they didn't even prospect about her future, her private life(not that she wanted them to), or her looks! What the heck? Well, actually they might have done those things if she'd let them have a chance, She'd turned them off halfway through. It didn't matter, anyway. Nothing could spoil her mood right now. How could she be sad or angry? She was a star! Right?

* * *

At about twelve o'clock, Shikamaru finally roused himself from his bed in the tour bus. Nothings strange there. But what_ was_ strange was that was looking serious. That wasn't normal. Usually Shikamaru's face looked one of three ways: sleeping, on the verge of sleep, or annoyed because he had responsibilities and couldn't sleep. Also, with her new fame and all, he should be looking happy, not serious, right? He cleared his throat, put on his best managerial face, and spoke up.

"Sabaku, we need to talk."

"About what, Nara? Everything is peaceful and fine now, right?"

"Yes and no. Yes, you're famous now. That means money, esteem, kids trying to be like you, blah blah blah...The works. You'll be livinig in a mansion within two years, if you want to."

"So then what, Nara?"

"Oh, come on, Sabaku. Newton's Third Law of Motion!"

"Umm, come again?"

"For every force there is an equal and opposite reaction. For all the good in your life, they're be a lot of bad, too. Also caused by being famous. And the biggest scourge of the famous is...?"

"Umm...news reporters?"

"Close. You see them all over the place."

"Tabloids?"

"Give the woman a cigar. And then take it back because smoking is bad for you."

"Says the chain smoker."

"Yes, well. The point is, being famous is like being under a magnifying glass. Everything you do is larger. Get a boyfriend and, within a day, everyone will know his family history. Go for a certain style, thousands of teen girls will copy you. Decide you think French food sucks, it'll go out of style. Have a wardrobe accident, and sweaty men will be leering at it on their computer screens for years to come. Worst of all, get pregnant, and you're screwed. Both literally and figuratively. Fame has price, Sabaku. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

"Alright, besides the Princess Bride reference, I agree with you. So what do I do?"

"You do NOT get pregnant,do your best to avoid wardrobe accidents, try to keep your private life as private as possible, and most of all, unless I arrange them, you do NOT take any interviews. Also, lighten up on the swearing. That's about all you _can_ do. There's little else that will make any difference. Believe me, I know."

"Previous experience?"

"A bad one."

"How bad?"

"Not-going-to-talk-about it bad, Sabaku."

"Oh, clever, Nara."

"Yes. Also, Sabaku no Temari isn't a catchy enough name for us to use it anymore. We need a new name for your act."

"What do you suggest?"

"Hmm...how about...Sand Princess."

_Sabaku no Temari, the Sand Princess, to release her hit track, "Slip, Slide, Zip Ride" on her first solo album, which is set for release in 15 months. Shinobi Studios threatens legal action, but Sand Princess's agent, Nara Shikamaru, dismisses charges as "a load of crap"._

* * *

**Well, well, well...The price of fame...foreshadowing much? I need to stop being so obvious.**


End file.
